Mayfair Capital Investment Management’s Property Income Trust for Charities has bought Bard Ltd’s HQ on the Tilgate Business Park, Crawley, from LondonMetric for £12.9m.
The deal for Forest House represents a yield of 6.94%, and takes PITCH’s portfolio to more than £300m of assets.
The 38,000 sq ft property is let to Bard until 2029.
Mayfair chief executive James Thornton said: “Crawley is a fast-improving office location that currently has a low supply of grade-A office supply. With new speculative office schemes in the pipeline we are positive about the prospects for rental growth, particularly with Gatwick becoming an increasingly important gateway to rival Heathrow.
“The acquisition provides PITCH with an attractive net initial yield close to 7% for a 15-year income stream to a strong tenant, which sits very well with our investors.”
LondonMetric has also bought Liskeard Retail Park in Cornwall from a property company for £9m – a net initial yield of 6.2%.
The 43,800 sq ft retail park is let to Homebase, Pets at Home and Argos and commands rents of up to £16.50 per sq ft.
It was bought on behalf of the Metric Income Plus Partnership, in which LondonMetric now holds a 46% stake.
The joint venture has also signed an extended debt facility with the Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, extending the facility to £125m and the term to January 2020 to match the extended life of the joint venture.
LondonMetric chief executive Andrew Jones said: “The off-market purchase of Liskeard is a great opportunity to acquire a good trading asset with a strong tenant line-up and excellent reversionary potential. It is consistent with MIPP’s investment criteria of acquiring well-let assets on long leases. The acquisition will show an immediate 7.5% return on equity.”
LondonMetric was advised by Strutt & Parker on Liskeard; by Savills on Crawley and by Allsop on Launceston.
chris.berkin@estatesgazette.com
